Straits, cares, and fears must unavoidably distract those in such times that were most clogged and incumbered with families and relations ; when a man should be thinking, O, what shall I do now to get my doubts and fears resolved about my interest in Christ ? How may I so behave mvself in my sufferings as to credit religion, and not become a scandal and stumbhng-block to others? His thoughts are taken up with other cares and fears : O, what will be- come of my wife and poor little ones ? What shall I do with them and for them, to secure them from danger.
I doubt not but it is a great design of the devil to keep us in con- tinual alarms and frights, and to puzzle our heads and hearts with a thousand difficulties, which possibly may never befal us, or if they do, shall never prove so fatal to us as we fancy them, and all this is to unfit us for our present duties, and destroy our comfort therein ; for if by frights and terrors of mind he can but once dis- tract our thoughts, he gains three points upon us to our unspeak- able loss.
1. Hereby he will cut off the freedom and sweetness of our com- munion with God in duties, and what an empty shell will the best duties be, when this kernel is wormed out by such a subtle artifice ? Prayer, as Damascen aptly expresses it, is ^AvafSacig m va the ascen- sion of the mind or soul to God; but distraction clips its wings; he can never offer up his soul and thoughts to God, that hath not possession of them himself: and he that is under distracting fears possesseth not himself The hfe of all communion with God in prayer, consists in the harmony that is betwixt our hearts and words, and both with the will of God ; this harmon^^ is spoiled by distraction, and so Satan gains that point.
2. But this is not all he gains and we lose by distracting fears ; for as they cut off the freedom and sweetness of our intercourse with God in prayer, so they cut off the soul from the succours and reliefs it might otherwise draw from the promises. We find when the Israelites were in great bondage, wherein their minds were dis- tracted with fears and sorrows, they regarded not the supporting promises of deliverance sent them by Moses, Exod. vi. 3. David had an express and particular promise of the kingdom from the mouth of God which must needs include his deliverance out of the hand of Saul, and all his stratagems to destroy him ; but yet, when imminent hazards were before his eyes, he was afraid, and that fear betrayed the succours from the promise, so tlxat it drew a quite contrary conclusion, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. " I shall one day perish by " the hand of Saul :^' And again he is at the same point, Psal. cxvi. 11. "All men are liars," not excepting Samuel himself, who had assured him of the kingdom. This is always the property and nature of fear (as T shewed before) to make men distrust the best
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR. 273
security when they are in imminent peril : But oh ! what a mis- chief is this to make us suspicious of the promises, which are our chief reUef and support in times of trouble : Our fears will un- fit us for prayer, they will also shake the credit of the promises with us; and so great is the damage we receive both ways, that it were better for us to lose our two eyes, than two such advantages in trouble. But,
3. This is not all ; by our present fears we lose the benefit and comfort of all our past experiences, and the singular relief we might have from all that faithfulness and goodness of God, which our eyes have seen in former straits and dangers, the present fear clouds them all, Isa* li. 12, 13. Men and dangers are so much minded, that God is forgotten, even the God that hath hitherto preserved us, though our former fears told us, the enemy was daily ready to devour us. All these sweet reliefs are cut off from us by our distracting fears, and that at a time when we have most need of them.
Effect 2. Dissimulation and hypocrisy are the fruit of slnvish fear ; distraction you see is bad enough, but dissimulation is worse than distraction, and yet as bad as it is, fear hath driven good men into this snare ; it will make even an upright soul warp and bend from the rules of that integrity and candour, which should be inseparable at all times from a Christian : of whom (saith God to his Israel) hast thou been afraid, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me ? God finds falsehood, and charges it upon fear, q. d. I know it was against the resolutions of my people's hearts thus to dissemble, this certainly is the effect of a fright ; who is lie that hath scared you into this evil ? It was Abraham's fear that made him dissemble to the reproach of his religion, Gen. xx. 2, 11. And indeed it was but an odd sight to see an heathen so schooling and reproving great Abraham about it, as he there doth.
It was nothing but fear that drew his son Isaac into the like snare. Gen. xxvi. 7. And it was fear that overcame Peter against liis promise, as well as principle, to say concerning his dear Saviour, / hnoiv not the man^ Matth. xxxi. 69. Had Abraham at that time remembered, and acted his faith freely upon what the Lord said to him, Gen. xvii. 1. Fear not Abraham^ I am thy shield^ he had esca- ped both the sin and the shame into which he fell, but even that great believer was foiled by his own fears ; and certainly this is a great evil, a complicated mischief. For,
1. By these falls and scandals, religion is made vile and con- temptible in the eyes of the world, it reflects with much reproach upon God and his promises, as if his word were not sufficient secu- rity for us to rely upon in times of trouble, as if it were safer trust- ing to our vvitj yea, to siu, than to tlie promises.
274? A ITtACTiCAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
2. It greatly weakens the hands of others, and proves a sore dis- couragement to them in their trials, to see their brethren faint for fear, and ashamed to own their principles ; sometimes it hath this mischievous effect, but it is always improved by Satan and wicked men to this purpose. And,
3. It will be a terrible blow and wound to our own consciences, for such flaws in our integrity we may be kept waking and sighing many a night ; O see the mischiefs of a timorous and faint spi- rit!